Live Like Walter Noel For Just $375K A Month

Walter Noel, whose investment firm the Fairfield Greenwich Group lost more than $7 billion of clients' money in the Bernard L. Madoff scheme, was reportedly seeking $350,000 to rent his family's Southampton house for the month of July, and $375,000 for August.

While there is nothing subprime about the Hamptons, home sales there haven't been immune from the downturn, either.

Recent data from Prudential Douglas Elliman found that second-quarter home sales there slumped more than 43 percent from the same period in 2008.

Even John Paulson, whose hedge fund made billions by betting against subprime mortgages, felt the real estate pinch. His Southampton "cottage" — which measures in at about 7,000 square feet — was sold this summer for just shy of $10 million after what the Curbed blog described as a "price chop for the ages." It first went on the market in April 2008 with an asking price of $19.5 million.

The two East Quogue homes owned by Marc Dreier, the highflying lawyer who pleaded guilty to defrauding hedge funds and other investors, didn't fare so well, either. After being seized by prosecutors, the Dune Road properties were sold at auction in June for about $10.4 million, somewhat less than the early estimate of $12.5 million.